Diet Characteristics in feral piglets (sus scrofa): Potential leads for diet formulation in farmed piglets.

VAN HEES, H.M.J.; BALLARI, SEBASTIAN A.; JANSSENS, GEERT

Vila Real

Congreso; European Society of Veterinary and Comparative Nutrition CONGRESS 2021; 2021

European Society of Veterinary & Comparative Nutrition

Introduction. Publicly available nutrient tables for farmed piglets do not makereference as to the optimal recommended dietary fibre level (DF) and characteristics whereas literature suggests that DF is implicated in gut health in piglets. Moreover, little data exists on DF in suckling pigs and its role for digestive tract health and development. It is well documented that the omnivorous feral pig mainly consumes plant material, although little data exists for younger age groups. Our approach was to study the diet of suckling feral pigs, assuming it could provide insights into the ?evolutionary diet?, i.e. the diet to which their digestive and metabolic system has adapted, as proposed for feral cats. We hypothesized that young pigs start to consume non-milk items, including plant material, early in life. Animals, material and methods. We collected and classified the stomach content of forty unweaned pigs from the Bahia Samborombón range (Buenos Aires, Argentina) during September-November 2018. From each individual, stomach items were classified as: vegetable matter (leaves and stems, bark, roots, seeds), animal matter (curd milk, indeterminate animal tissues) or non-organic matter (rocks, earth, sand). Particle size of stomach content was determined by wet sieving over four sieve mesh sizes, based on. Results and discussion. The collected female and male piglets weighed onaverage 4.56 kg (range 2.18-7.6 kg). Many individuals had non-milk items, mainly of plant origin, contained in their stomach. Twenty-four and 28% of the stomach particles were > 2000 µm and < 210 µm, respectively (dMean 1304 µm). Farmed piglet diets typically have ~1% and ~55% (dMean ~0.400 µm). No correlation between particle size and body weight was observed (P > 0.10). The implications for the early development of the digestive and metabolic system warrants further studies as it may be relevant for farmed piglet diet formulation. Conclusions. These data suggest that feral suckling piglets, in contrast to commercial piglets, consume a variety of non-milk items, mainly consisting of vegetable material with a coarse particle size.